Adjustment problems of juvenile diabetes

A comparative and correlational study was made of 50 juvenile diabetics and 50 individually matched controls. Evaluation included psychiatric interview, psy-chological testing, interviews in home with parents, and medical rating of diabetic control. For clinical ratings, the diabetics showed significantly more pathology on psychiatric classification, dependence-independence balance, self-percept, manifest and latent anxiety, sexual identification, constriction, hostility, and oral preoccupation. Independently scored test data revealed greater patho-logical body image, latent anxiety, constraint, dysphoria, and dependency. Ad-justment at home and with peers, emotional tone of home, and parental domina-tion-submission behavior and maternal protection-neglect behavior were signifi-cantly worse or more extreme for the diabetics. Characteristics significantly related to diabetic control were later onset and shorter duration of diabetes; higher I.Q. and income; later birth order. Psychological characteristics signifi-cantly related to good control were normal dependence-independence behavior (nonextreme) and adequate self-percept. UVENILE DIABETES is still shrouded by ignorance, despite the fact that there are an estimated 200,000 youngsters with this illness. While the same holds true for many chronic diseases in childhood, the often capricious and unpredictabl